Rod Gilbert who was the greatest Ranger of all time has passed. There might be bigger stars who played for the Rangers like Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky. But for a hockey fan of a certain age like me it was all about the great Rod Gilbert.
When I was kid in the sixties there were only a few hockey teams. So you could follow the sport in between watching football and baseball. The Rangers had a decent team. They had the great goalie Eddie Giacomin and his back up Gilles Villemure. The hard nosed Vic Hadfield. The always elegant Jean Ratelle. Glen Stather and Pete Stemkowski. The unpronounceable Walt Tkaczuk. All the flotsam and jetsom that Marv Albert would talk about when the Rangers played. I went to a couple dozen games in those days. Tickets were not hard to get. The Rangers were often out of contention. But they still were a lot of fun.
Rod lived to be 80. He had a good run. He was always a very classy guy. Never a scandal or a bad word. The kind of guy people would point to as a role model. I always really admired him and I thought of him as Mr. Ranger.
RIP Rod. You did good.
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